Good Dry Fly Fishing on the SoHo……..TVA Doing 400 Sluice

Tues….Nov. 27,2012….Good day yesterday guiding Fred Gebarowski, Eric, Renniger, Raleigh, NC, TN South Holston, met Eric and Fred on the river early and we were in the water and fishing by 9am….just in time to get rigged up, spot a few rising, midging fish and just then the release siren bellowed out its all too familiar and shrill sound…..uh oh is what I thought, often that doesn’t mean good things. Look out, the flood and the ark are coming. But not today, the TVA has completed a winter drawdown of the reservoir and its now down enough to accomodate winter and spring rains and snows. I called the TVA and they had announced a 400 sluice through late December to service the generating unit at the dam. A gift….pretty ironic? I mean it is Christmas, a time when the giver of all gifts gave us the ultimate gift. This wasn’t as good as that but we did get in a full day of fishing.

400 sluice means rising fish and they don’t sit in that slow, dead water and have all day to look at your offerings. We had excellent dry fly action for about 5 hours, first with midges, then blue wings and sulphurs. Fishing smashed sulphurs pretty well…..and its almost December? You bet. 400 sluice is a gift. We landed about 3 dozen fish by my estimation, a good day, and great for 5 hours fishing, where else can you catch fish like that on dry flies/the surface this time of year? Its great. Will be hitting the SoHo a good bit during this event….it will last through mid to late December.

I am in Spruce Pine,NC this morning meeting Mac Cheek of Greensboro for a day of fishing….should be a good day. Cloudy with a rain/snow mix……another gift. Thank you Lord….